Recoded: 20 July 2007
Locations: Angel, London; Brighton, England
Tags: erider, tactical technology collective, luck of seven, documentary, citizen journalism, hacktivism, non-profits, open source
Music: random band at moo.com party
About: on the worst possible day to travel, i decided it would be a smart idea to travel from london to brighton. with the tube flooded, freeway and surface trains submerged, i arrived in brighton a few hours later than expected. despite nature's attempt to thwart my meeting, dirk slater and i spent the afternoon talking about technology, hacktivism and non-profits.

Recoded: 13 July 2007
Locations: Prague, Czech Republic
Tags: tol, activism, hacktivism, new media, central asia, freedom, citizen journalism
Music: Everything's Got 'Em by Harry Nilsson
About: For the first extended stay was in Prague, where I taught a corse on new media journalism for Transitions Online. On the last day, I interviewed Jeremy Druker, Executive Director, and Evgeny Morozov, Director of New Media.

Recoded: 17 July 2007
Locations: Berlin, Germany
Tags: coworking, travel, berlin, twittervision, dave troy, travis todd, popvox, growvotes
Music: a little boy playing the accordion, background music within coffee shop
About: while on my global hunt, i popped over to visit my friends will and sue. for two months, they are honeymooning and taking in the sites, sounds and joyful company of friends.

while i was in their company, i scheduled a few interviews. this particular interview was from travis j. todd (growvotes) and dave troy (twittervision, popvox) where we discussed everything under the sun. a thinthasied version of my thoughts can be found here.

check out more information on locations for freelancers, independents, and free thinkers, check out http://wiki.coworking.info

Recoded: 25 June 2007
Locations: Midtown, NYC
Tags: iPhone, iPhoneDevCamp, Whurley, Raven Zachary, David Clayman, Greg Packer, Apple, Apple Store, first in line
Music: SoulhatAbout: after meeting whurley and raven at some IT conference in midtown, we jetted off to confirm the roomer of a few individuals who are waiting inline to acquire the iPhone. in the post production debate, we decided to make this video a promo for iPhoneDevCamp. if you're in San Francisco on July 6 - 8, be sure to check out this Barcamp inspired event.

About:some where between 90 degrees fahrenheit to 100 kelvin, i stepped out of my house and hopped down the street to see what wears the renegade craft fair had on display. with no money in my pocket, i scoured the vendors looking for the one desirable item i could not part. after about the third hour, i found it! nuzzled away in the far back, sat souldier. after a long discussion, i selected my materials and found a decorative strap for my camera. for the rest of the day, i bounced from booth to booth, in an attempt to fight off a dreary hangover and a the god of hades.

through the heat, i discovered that there is a documentary of the D.I.Y. craft community. while i originally intended this piece to wax poetic about how craft and free culture are intertwined... what i wanted to say has already been said. instead, i'm going to point you to Handmade Nation. (youtube clip, etsy page)

"the renegade craft fair is a unique diy event organized by sue blatt + kathleen habbley. when this event began in 2003, there was nothing else like it. we took up crafts as a hobby after college and decided to try selling our stuff in local fairs. to our surprise, no events were catering to the burgeoning diy craft community or even prohibited crafts all together. so we thought of organizing a fair of our own that tapped into this movement and provided a laid back, fresh venue for artists and shoppers alike." from the renegade craft fair website.

About: buried in the heart of sunset park, exists a worker run collective providing technology support to New York City nonprofits, ranging from designing web sites to fixing networks. growing from humble roots in 1995, this grassroots collective's primary work is to pool, improve and enhance the needs of the social justice community.

last month, i had the pleasure to visit with jamie and dan to discuss may first people link and some of the work they are coordinating for the the US Social Forum.

Recoded: 30 May 2007
Locations: video is shot in Beavercreek, Ohio; photos are from around the world.
Tags: Noel Hidalgo, Marlyna Hidalgo, Parents, Interview, History, Photo montage, Beavercreek, Ghosts, ccMixter, oldDog, narva9
Music: Don Quioxte by oldDog and Don Quioxte (with guitar, vocals only attached) by narva9About: at the end of may, i ventured to the midwest to attend on old friend's wedding. on the way back to new york city, i stopped by my parent's home in beavercreek. for three days, we chatted, told stories, and reviewed old photographs. in the evening of the last day, i asked my parents to sit down for a interview. this segment contains seven minutes of an hour long interview.

the photos that bookend this segment were rescued from my paternal grandfather's house. starting with rare photograps of my great-grandmother, the intro primarily contains images from my father's side of the family. the ending photo montage contains photos of me primarily shot from my father.

on thursday, 10 may 2007, i loaded up my laptop and a borrowed a Sony HVR-A1U and headed over to House 2.0 for a bit of Jelly NYC. after leaving my house in greenpoint and stopping to smell some flowers, I found myself on a motionless 7 train, wondering what joy and excitement would befall the day. little did i know, how much i would learn in such few hours. while the day was filled with standard enjoyment and pleasant conversations. it wasn't until the afternoon when i started filming did i really discover the important lessons.

here are some tips on being a better videographer in nyc...lesson 1 - people will stare at you and think you are a tourist. just remind them god created sky for everyone to enjoy. then, like a good new yorker, take off your cap, curtsey, and say have a good day.
lesson 2 - people will ask you what you are doing. just say, "I'm looking for something to report" and then politely remind them of the subway ads saying, "see something, say something."
lesson 3 - listen to what you have to say before saying it, but then again don't do it over and over. eventually you will get it. don't worry, after you're comfortable being in front of the bloody camera, things will flow.
lesson 4 - give your subjects a count down after hitting record. i found my self working with really tight record times. simply padding 5 - 7 seconds before and after interview statements would have allowed for better transition.

on the technical end...lesson 1 - HD is HUGE!!! while i'm not sure of the exact conversion, it's roughly a GIG a min. oh, and if you think that your laptop's hard drive can handle that type of data manipulation... think again. right now, i'm using my 60 gig 4th gen iPod as my scratch disk, thank goodness it's the last model that had firewire!
lesson 2 - map things out. not only are tapes expensive, storage is a premium and so is your processor power. make a mental map of scenes, and do a bit of story boarding.
lesson 3 - it takes forever to convert data from HD to the web. make sure before outputting that you're ready, and then once your ready review Zadi Diaz's rules for making internet video compatible with appleTV.
lesson 4 - create an account on a content sharing site like blip or revver where you ultimately own the intellectual property.

it appears that my dreamhost server flipped out earlier in the day. thanks to the hard working support staff we are back up and running.

though through my foraging, i once thought it was a good idea to host everything here at Lo7. in reality, between server constraints and thoughts of the unknown, i have walked down the path to to blip.tv.

WHY???

first, the blip.tv guys and gals are awesome. ever so often, when we would go out drinking, they would laugh stating my foolishness in hosting my own video.

second, it's super easy! i once thought that i had to use a special drupal module, but that hasn't turned out to be the case. instead, i'm using the drupal video module and imbedding the blip.tv flash and quicktime file within the node. too boot, i now can promote my self on iTunes, Windows Media Center and on Democracy Player without having to blink.

in my second installment, this was an attempt to be poetic. after a long day at harvard business school's social entrepreneur conference, things just kinda went down hill... ;)

hey look it's march 7th! just four more months... do i feel a bit of pressure, hellsyeah!

this past sunday, i depart wicked early to attend Harvard Business School's annual Social Entrepreneur Conference. hungover from being out too late with a bunch of political bloggers, i ferried my self into the lovely arms of jetblue and pondered an action plan... as a huge fan of the number seven, i decided to meet seven new people and ask them to tag themselves with seven words. VOLA!

yes, at times i'm quite timid. i didn't even get to the first person unitll after lunch. in need of a cigarage, i found one, ankill chopra, a fellow new yorker who was more than willing to bare the freezing tempature to wattle through my bumbling attempt to describe my project. gracefully, he indulged my request and we chatted about nyc's technical community. as we went into the grand hall to hear dan doctorf, ankill introduced me to his lovely partner and soon tobe HBS student, camille. also from new york, she quickly agreed and with in 5 minutes i had scored two interview.

as doctorf's statements turned into a self masturbatory harvard/make money first/nyc & rapid development good speech, i moaned and groaned... locked in by three people to my left, i decided to listen and fill my mind with disgust. then at the end, i was awarded by the introduction to theresa chinte, a fellow brooklynite who lives in the Atlantic Yards area. after we chided the Atlantic Yards project; she granted a interview.

then in the hallway, i ran into ajit. his statements in an earlier session, made me wanna say thank you... in the "arts as social change session" he noted definitive metrics for all programs, and then gave me the best line ever! "be still, bliss will come to you." in the afternoon session, i came across meridith who happens to know charlie o'donnell. it's weird how being hyper-connected can make the world feel much smaller. then afterward, we walked to the career fair where i stubbled upon my last two subjects jana and misha.

what can i say? GREAT SUCCESS!!! below is a transcript of what people are saying.

the past seven years have been filled with their ups and downs. back then, i was just a little kid with an inexperienced understanding of the world. through countless jobs, accidents, girlfriends, and friends, i'm still here. this video is 777 images from my past seven years. if you look closely, you might recognize yourself. the music is by my old buddies charlie hustle playing airport shuttle.